Detecting available on-street parking spaces has been an important problem for parking management companies, city planners, and for others concerned with vehicle densities and parking availability. One method for determining parking availability is through the use of “puck-style” magnetic ground sensors that output a binary signal when detecting a vehicle in a parking stall. While this method can provide accurate parking information for street settings with demarcated parking stalls, it is difficult to estimate parking space when there is no demarcation on the street (multiple parking). In addition, this method offers limited functionality beyond single parking spot counts, is prone to damage by parking vehicles and regular traffic maintenance equipment, and incurs traffic disruption upon installation, repair, and replacement.
Video-based solutions have been also proposed to determine the availability of parking spaces by detecting parking vehicles and then estimating available parking space. Typically, each camera in a network of multiple surveillance cameras can cover four to five parking spots when the camera is deployed at an opposite side of a street relative to the parking spots. These systems can provide accurate parking space estimation for both single space and multi-space parking.
While these systems can provide accurate parking information for each parking spot, there are significant equipment, installation, and maintenance costs associated with these solutions.